The ADEC NSF Engineering Team met in Columbus Ohio at the offices of the Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center (ITEC) for the team's regularly scheduled meeting on September 4-5, 2001. ITEC serves as the Network Operating Center (NOC) for the ADEC Wireless Internetwork (ADECNet) which now includes approximately 30 Tachyon CPE equipped sites. Jeremy Guralnick, Tachyon Vice President for Engineering and representatives from NASA attended the meeting. The transportable CPE was included on the agenda.
The team examined and evaluated a variety of strategies for a developing a transportable CPE and came to a quick conclusion that a generic design approach would be the most appropriate strategy for ADEC. The team agreed that the development of performance and operational specifications, and costs for a basic core CPE service module should be our first priority. The core service module would provide the most basic platform that could be capable of providing reliable Internet service. It would serve as the core around which more sophisticated units could be built.
Any transportable CPE solution must be certifiable by Tachyon in order to have access to the satellite-based network. ADEC will be working with Tachyon later this month to define a certification process for these CPEs. The engineering team will be going to San Diego on September 26-28, to meet with Tachyon engineers. We will establish basic certifiable performance criteria for the following systems of a transportable CPE platform.
1. Radio Frequency (RF), ie., signal transmission aspects of the transportable CPE
2. Internetworking, ie., Internet connectivity
3. Power/Electrical Supply
4. Air Conditioning/Equipment Cooling
5. Satellite Acquisition
6. Equipment Testing
7. Transporter Platform
The ADEC engineering team and the Tachyon engineers will also establish performance criteria for transportable CPE operations standards and training. It became apparent at the ITEC meeting that there will be cost trade-offs between the sophistication of the transportable CPE and the level of skill and ability of the transportable CPE operators. Optional system components which could provide for easy operation, flexibility or convenience (ie., automatic GPS steering of the satellite antenna or self-contained all-weather platform) will increase the initial cost of the transportable CPE but could reduce the cost of operation or staff training. Tachyon will work with ADEC to develop training programs for ADEC member installers and operators.
The next Status Report will be prepared when the engineering team returns from San Diego. Preliminary performance standards should be available for review by the end of October.
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"This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant No. 0073240. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the National Science Foundation."